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Made with Code: Why Google's Offering Free Coding Classes to Women

It's a well-known fact that even though girls start out liking math and science in school, they start losing interest in the subject by age 13. By the time those women graduate college and enter the job market, that lack of interest translates into a huge dearth of qualified women in STEM fields.

While the classes are geared toward helping women and minorities already in tech advance their skills, you don't have to be an expert to apply. The $50 million initiative is part of Google's "Made with Code" program, which is geared toward helping middle- and high-school girls learn how to code. Google X vice president Megan Smith put it in tech terms by saying the company is in the process of "debugging inclusion."

What do you think about this initiative? Pretty cool or simply a marketing stunt? Tell us what you think in the comments below or tweet us @Shape_Magazine!